On the Set of Zoolander: The Surprising Story Behind Hansel’s Bohemian Lair

Remember the scene in Zoolander when Hansel escorts Derek Zoolander and Matilda Jeffries, on the run from Mugatu, through his bohemian lair—half-pipe, climbing wall, Sherpa, and all? The decor was the work of Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch—the husband-and-wife team behind the New York–based interior design firm Roman and Williams. “[The space] was inspired by Berber hideouts in the Atlas Mountains; Nureyev’s home in Li Galli, Italy; and Brancusi’s studio,” says Alesch. Pretty sophisticated references for a tongue-in-cheek flick about a narcissistic male model.

Standefer and Alesch, whose interior design career has taken off since the 2001 film, actually began their careers in an office on the lot of Paramount Pictures, working on the sets of films like Practical Magic and Addicted to Love. Today they no longer work in Hollywood, and they weren’t involved in the upcoming Zoolander 2, but they have fond memories of their work behind the camera, especially Hansel’s hippie-style home—the pair actually kept the bed they used on set and now have it in their own home. “We sometimes miss the humor in film, the parody of certain characters, and the environments they inhabit,” says Alesh. “We miss expressing different levels of psychosis in design. In the real world we have to assume everyone and everything is simply fun and great all the time. In film we have a chance to explore a lot more range of emotion, good and bad.”

While they don’t design for the big screen anymore, their work has shown up in the homes of some of its major stars, like Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Hudson, and, of course, Ben Stiller. After working with the designers on Zoolander, Stiller recruited them in 2003 for a film he starred in called Duplex. During filming, Stiller asked Standefer and Alesch if they would design a home he’d just recently purchased in L.A. The result was, in Standefer’s words, “a Hollywood Hills home inspired by 1930s L.A., a time when many European intellectuals like Brecht, Mann, Schoenberg, Edward Weston, and Tina Modotti made it West; camped out in the bungalows; and wrote, read, met, and played. Nothing in Ben’s home is too over-the-top luxurious; it’s sun-kissed and shady—an intellectual hideout in the chaparral where he can write and spend time with the family.” Roman and Williams has since designed several more of Stiller’s various residences in New York and California.

When Standefer and Alesch released their book, Roman and Williams Buildings & Interiors: Things We Made, in 2012, Stiller showed his appreciation by penning the forward. He wrote: “They understand viscerally how to make a space that you want to both inhabit and imbibe at the same time.” As Stiller tells us now, “On the set of Zoolander, I was so drawn to Robin’s attention to detail. She cared as much I did and that meant the world. Every environment in the film was thoughtful and textured and had a richness to it. She was, for me, the person who created the aesthetic of the movie.” Of Hansel’s apartment specifically, he says, “It was a play pen for grown-ups. The skate ramp alone was so cool and each space was illustrative of Hansel’s character. And weirdly, we shot the Vogue shoot in that same space. Walking in was like coming home!” Including Stiller, we all wanted to hang out in Hansel’s sultry lair after seeing the movie for the first time, and it seems Standefer and Alesch felt the same . . . at least during the week. “We favor Hansel most of the time,” they note. “But Friday and Saturday night, we definitely fall for Zoolander.”

Above, take a look behind the scenes of Hansel’s apartment from Zoolander and inside the Roman and Williams–designed home of Ben Stiller.